Wednesday April 20, 2011 5:30 am

Glee: Sue-pervillains and ‘Neglected’ Stars

Tuesday’s “Night of Neglect” finally put an end to the Glee drought, but the show barely had time to fit in all the tender moments, twists and touching one-on-ones. Only four new tunes were featured in the episode, but at least the show made them count. But did they have anything to do with neglected artists or characters? …No, not really.

The show opened with a classic set-up: Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) rallying his team to participate in an idea that’s just doomed for failure. Because Sue Sylvester’s Cheerios money is all tied up in untouchable Cayman Islands bank accounts, New Directions found themselves again at funding odds. They need big bucks to make the trip to New York, and Will got the idea to fund the entire thing by selling salt-water taffy. At twenty-five cents a pop. This equals out to 20,000 pieces of taffy (egads!).

The bellyaching that followed put Mike Chang (Harry Shum, Jr.) over the edge. He revealed that four of the Glee club members (himself, Tina, Artie and Brittany) are members of the Brainiacs, the school’s academic decathalon team -- and, they’ve done so well they’re heading to finals in Detroit. But no one in the club even noticed. Will quickly added their funding needs to the projected salt water taffy sales.

Thank goodness Holly Holliday (guest star Gwyneth Paltrow) was on head to tell him the idea’s no good. She suggested a fantastic benefit concert instead, which she titled (aptly) Night of Neglect, featuring songs performed only by neglected artists.

And we guess that’s what put Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) over the edge. She launched the League of Doom/Legion of Evil, featuring Sandy Ryerson (Stephen Tobolowsky) aka The Pink Dagger, Terry Schuster (Jessalyn Gilsig) aka The Honey Badger and Vocal Adrenaline coach Dustin Goolsby (Cheyenne Jackson) aka Sergeant Handsome. Coach Sue will now be known as General Zod (named after, we presume, the DC comic books villain). Watch the scene in the video above.

Sandy was soon walking through the halls wearing a pink cape and inventing catch phrases (“You’ve been poked… poked by the Dagger!”), while Goolsby attempted to woo substitute teacher Holly Holliday ("I'm handsome. I'm good-looking, and I'm easy on the eyes. Also, I'm gorgeous") to no avail.

That’s about the time that Sunshine Corazon (Charice) returned to William McKinley, but not because she’s leaving Vocal Adrenaline. Using her 600 Twitter followers as collateral, Sunshine offered her vocal stylings for the benefit concert. Watch the video above to hear her belting out her audition piece, Celine Dion’s “All By Myself.” Sunshine is definitely a neglected character on the show, but Celine Dion might as well change her last name to Diva. She’s nothing like a neglected artist (and we know that because we watch American Idol).

Lauren Zizes (Ashley Fink) was the one who noticed that Mercedes (Amber Riley) is being neglected, and mostly by herself. Sick of seeing Mercedes allow herself to be shoved out of the spotlight by one Rachel Berry (Lea Michele), Zizes volunteered to become her manager -- for a 10% commission, of course. Soon, Mercedes was making wild requests (including a fresh, fluffy puppy so she can dry her hands post-wash) and terrorizing the club. Oddly, the duty of making Mercedes happy fell to Rachel, who was convinced to take on the task by the joint force of Finn (Cory Monteith) and Quinn (Dianna Agron).

And she’s not the only one. When Emma (Jayma Mays) and Will had a touching break room moment, in which Emma revealed that her husband Carl (John Stamos) has left her, Holly saw the sparks flying between them. It’s obvious that Will is still completely in love with Emma -- the man actually put on a plastic glove and hand-fed her freshly-cleaned grapes.

Holly had no choice but to break up with him, but not until after she performed a poignant version of “Turning Tables.” They kissed, they parted… Will’s free. In other tender scenes, Holly Holliday gave Sandy Ryerson's Heckling Club a speech about why insulting others is bad, and Rachel told Mercedes that the path to true stardom is to simply perform like a star.

Tina Cohen-Chang (Jenna Ushkowitz) sang “I Follow Rivers” and Mercedes “Ain’t No Way” at the most ill-attended benefit concert ever. Sandy Ryerson, who happens to be a huge fan of Aretha Franklin, abruptly switched sides by offering to fund the entire New York trip for the club.

His decision forced Sue’s hand, and she’s now activated The Honey Badger (that’s Terri, ex-wife, shrew and assistant manager). Next week, the show returns with a special 90-minute episode, and we hope to see Terri in action then.